this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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I was curious about how many lives a cat has depending on the country, so I decided to find as much info as I could and post it here.

The map is made in purple to help daltonic people understand it better. I've seen it should help with deuteranopia and protanopia mostly, but I'm very new to this so if you have any feedback, let me know ;)

Disclaimers

7 or 9 lives

The countries with 7 or 9 were the ones where I found some discrepancies depending on the region, but since the sources didn't state which region, I had to put the whole country. Technically, Italy is also in that category, but I believe the people who says it's 9 lives is in very specific regions and 7 lives is way more used.

Cyprus

Although populated mostly by greeks, surprisingly most info I found pointed towards them saying 9 lives.

No info

There are some countries I couldn't find any definitive information and had to go with what other pages stated about their myths, these are:

  • Syria
  • Lebanon
  • Palestine
  • Irak
  • Saudi Arabia

So I am very sorry to the arab folks living in those countries if I'm somehow mistaken about this ^^'

Other mistakes

I'm sure I have made some mistakes and assumptions about how many lives a cat has in some countries and I have put them closer to immortality or given them taxes on their lives, forgive me.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I've never heard of cats having other than 9 lives (NL, also speaking EN) but somehow 7 lives makes more sense to me; it's a lucky number, after all!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

In English, you're also on cloud number nine, while we're auf Wolke sieben in German.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Maybe it's 7 or 9 depending on the cat. Like if it's an especially assholish cat, the cat god grants it another 2 ~~years of life~~ lives.

(I have had a teenager talking my ear off all day and it has made me illiterate.)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

What happens if a cat walks from germany to denmark? Do they get 2 extra lives?

What if a cat loses their last life by a cannon that pushes them into denmark?.

What if a cat with only 1 life remaining walks from denmark to germany?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

It's kinda interesting that the saying about cats having multiple lives is pretty much universal but then the amount differs. I wonder why that is

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Source for France? Never heard about this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Even though they're mostly anecdotic, there seems to be a consensus that both are used. There are some articles stating they're 9 and others stating they're 7, and depending who you ask they'll tell you one or another.

Un chat usagé a sept vies, mais un chat neuf vies

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Wow, a blast from the past! I love Pinkie's Brew in russian!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Is it actually correct to use печь in this way? Wiktionary says it's about baking, like for bread.

Edit: Ah, the English version has a kind of food theme. Then does the analogy carry over properly? Hopefully someone here speaks Russian better than me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I'm from Greece and I think I've only heard people talk about 9 lives here😄

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Wrong, it's 1. I expect a corrected post on my desk by 4.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Why is everything a purple shade?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Its explained in the post. It's for daltonic people to be able to see it bettee, although I dont have experience with it so I don't know if I did it right

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

Oh, didn't read it